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Saturday, May 20, 2006

Passion at Last!

Big reward today! The passion flower vine that I've been fretting about surprised me with its first bloom. There's just something about these alien-looking flowers that I love and I hope that someday the struggling little vine I've been pampering will flourish like the one I remember in my Aunt Helen's yard. That one spread across her entire back fence and bloomed like mad.

I took advantage of a break in the rain to fuss with the vine a bit, tying up loose branches and clipping the few yellow leaves that were left. The fertilizer seems to really be kicking in now and the plant seems more vigorous and healthy--lots of new leaves and I spotted two more buds. As it fills out more, the tendrils will have more branches to latch onto and I won't have to tie it so much. I can't wait to see it completely cover the old iron door that I have it growing against.

7 comments:

Beautiful! I grew my first passion flower last year, after my husband and I kept "ooohing and aaahing" about one that we saw growing on a fence in our neighborhood. They are something special, aren't they?

It looks wanderfull, a unique looking flower.I love the way we remember our familys gardens plants and flowers.Like your aunt helen.It might be another wish list plant to go with columbine, cornflowers, and honeysuckle.

If it's P. caerulea, you probably won't have to worry. It'll be like your aunt's. Some folks consider it rampant.

If you love passionflowers (I do too), you must check out the selection at Kartuz Greenhouses. I bought a pink and orange variety through them that I'm pampering. It's a small grower. They have some really amazing passifloras.

Just wanted to say hi from a neighbor...we moved to Alameda this summer and I have a yard for the first time in my adult life and am trying out this gardening business. I ran across your blog while looking up local nurseries [Thomsen's...wow!] and I'm making my way back through your archives and enjoying them greatly -- it's so helpful in giving me ideas about what's possible here, thank you for that. And I'm commenting on this entry in particular because the first thing I planted was a passionflower, which only recently has been able to develop some almost-full buds [the heatwave in July and then some hungry birds did a real number on it, putting foil up seems to keep them away] and seeing your photo gives me hope that one day they might even bloom.

Welcome to Alameda and good luck with your garden here. Just to update you on my passionflower vine, it is thriving! I actually had to prune it heavily a couple weeks ago and I think I still need to prune it more. By the end of the summer I was getting multiple blooms each day. I'm sure yours will do well, but don't be afraid to re-locate it if it doesn't take off where it is. This is the third location I've had mine in and it's only now looking really vigorous. And it may need fertilizer as well--the sandy soil here really doesn't hold on to the nutrients very well, especially when we've had a lot of rain as we did this spring. Good luck!

Hey everyone...Just a quick question, I just baught a passion flower and it seems to be doing quite well. However i noticed these tiny little worms that seem to leave behind a spider web type of "stuff". I do not want it to kill my plant but am unsure what it is or how to get rid of the nasty little worms...any suggestions?? please help

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"Every gardener I know is a junkie for the experience of being out there in the mud and fresh green growth. Why? An astute therapist might diagnose us as codependent and sign us up for Tomato-Anon meetings. We love our gardens so much it hurts. For their sake we'll bend over till our backs ache, yanking out fistfuls of quackgrass by the roots as if we are tearing out the hair of the world.... What is it about gardening that is so addicting?" -Barbara KingsolverAnimal, Vegetable, Miracle